But mean lust Has bound its chains so tight around the earth, That all within it but the virtuous man Is venal: gold or fame will surely reach The price prefixed by selfishness, to all 170 But him of resolute and unchanging will; Whom, nor the plaudits of a servile crowd, Nor the vile joys of Tainting luxury, Can bribe to yield his elevated soul To Tyranny or Falsehood, though they wield 175 With blood-red hand the sceptre of the world.
"The Complete Poetical Works of Percy Bysshe Shelley Volume III"
Percy Bysshe Shelley Edited by Thomas Hutchinson, M. A.
She was a cripple, and incapable To add one mite to gold-fed luxury: And therefore did her spirit dimly feel 10 That poverty, the crime of Tainting stain, Would merge her in its depths, never to rise again.
"The Complete Poetical Works of Percy Bysshe Shelley Volume III"
Percy Bysshe Shelley Edited by Thomas Hutchinson, M. A.
He was surprised and angry at being driven more and more to the conclusion that the worship of the golden calf was verily and indeed rampant in Oxford-side by side, no doubt, with much that was manly and noble, but Tainting more or less the whole life of the place.
"Tom Brown at Oxford"
Thomas Hughes